'Newt University' instead of Newt the convention speaker

By MAGGIE HABERMAN

08/08/2012 11:46 PM EDT

A major question hanging over convention planning for Republicans has been how to control messaging in Tampa while demonstrating unity and a sense that rumors of dislike of Mitt Romney among rivals and tea party leaders is exaggerated.

Jeremy Peters has the latest on those efforts, which Jonathan Martin wrote about at length a few weeks ago, and they don't appear to include Newt Gingrich taking the stage:

Newt Gingrich hoped to get a coveted speaking slot at the Republican National Convention. Instead the Romney campaign will have him teach a series of workshops they have nicknamed Newt University.

Michele Bachmann and Herman Cain are not scheduled to speak, either. They have decided to stage their own mini-convention of sorts — calling it a “unity rally” to dispel any doubts about their party loyalty — at a megachurch about 20 minutes outside town.

Gov. Rich Perry of Texas is trying to be a good sport about getting passed over for a speech. “That’s not my call to make,” he said in an interview this week. “The convention is for Mitt Romney, not for me. Not for Newt, not for Marco Rubio, not for Chris Christie. It’s for Mitt.”

As Mr. Romney and his team make the final adjustments to their plans for the convention, which opens here in two and a half weeks, they are grappling with the delicate questions that hang over these quadrennial gatherings of clashing ambition, competing political agendas and outsize egos. Add to this year’s mix personalities colorful enough to fill a reality show, and the fastidiously controlled, leave-nothing-to-chance Romney campaign has faced some hazardous casting choices. And what they decide could turn off the independent voters their carefully choreographed convention is meant to sway.

Sarah Palin and Donald Trump are still possibilities for speaking slots, he reports, replete with a great interview with The Donald talking about, natch, his following.

Of the two, Trump seems likelier to be offered a slot and to accept it.